In 1999, espionage author Christopher Andrew revealed that Soviet archives smuggled by defector Vasili Mitrokhin described an unnamed KGB agent recruited from California Democratic Party circles in the 1970s:

Though [Gus] Hall tended to overstate the influence of undeclared members of the CPUSA within the Democratic Party, there was at least one to whom the [KGBs] Centre attached real importance during the 1970s: a Democratic activist in California recruited as a KGB agent during a visit to Russia. The agent, who is not identified by name in the reports noted by Mitrokhin, had a wide circle of influential contacts in the Democratic Party: among them Governor Jerry Brown of California, Senator Alan Cranston, Senator Eugene McCarthy, Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator Abraham Ribicoff, Senator J. William Fulbright and Congressman John Conyers, Jr. During the 1976 Presidential campaign the agent was able to provide inside information from within the Carter camp and a profile of Carter himself, which were particularly highly valued by the Centre since it had so few high-level American sources. On one occasion he spent three hours discussing the progress of the campaign at a meeting with Carter, Brown and Cranston in Carter's room at the Pacific Hotel. His report was forwarded to the Politburo. During the final stages of the campaign the agent had what the KGB claimed were 'direct and prolonged conversations' with Carter, Governor Brown and Senators Cranston, Kennedy, Ribicoff and Jacob Javits. Andropov attached such importance to the report on these conversations that he forwarded it under his signature to the Politburo immediately after Carter's election. . .Mitrokhin had access only to reports in FCD files based on intelligence provided by the agent, not to the agent's file itself--probably because he had been recruited by the Second (rather than the First) Chief Directorate during a visit to the Soviet Union. Within the United States he seems to have been run from the San Francisco residency.1

Narrowing Down the Suspects

Following publication of Andrews book, I began trying to identify this individual. I worked from the clues provided in Andrews summary as quoted above. Unfortunately, Andrew did not include the original Russian text of the document in his book, nor have I yet been able to find it among the original documents he has reproduced in his other published work, so I should emphasize that here I am working from Andrews English summary of a Russian original document, not from the original document itself. Due to this, I have unanswered questions about how to interpret the significance of certain phrases mentioned above, such as the characterization of the agent as a Democratic activist. Hopefully the original document will be made available in the future and will shed light on these details. But in any case, here is what I have been able to find by following up on the clues Andrew has provided so far.

In the process of trying to collect details on the Pacific Hotel meeting with Jimmy Carter, Jerry Brown, and Alan Cranston, I learned that Los Angeles Times reporter Tyler Marshall had questioned Cranston about the meeting without success:

Asked about the account Thursday, Cranston said he was unaware whom the Soviet mole might be.

"I have no idea who this guy is," Cranston said. The former senator said that he recalled a Carter campaign event at the Pacific Hotel but remembered no meeting between the three Democrats as described by Mitrokhin.

"It's not logical such a meeting would have occurred," Cranston said. "I don't believe it happened. Sounds like this agent [was] trying to build up his own reputation."2

Jamie Dettmer also questioned Cranston, as well as Jerry Brown and Jimmy Carter, with similar results. As Dettmer reported on an intelligence community discussion forum:

I talked to Cranston and Brown and Carter about the 1970s spy--all recalled the meeting but not who was in the room. We also tried the hotel but their records did not go back that far. We also tried the Carter library but they could not help either.3

A participant in the same thread as Dettmers post suggested that the suspect profile fit Tom Hayden.4 This sounded like a guess worth pursuingHayden certainly fit the description of a Democratic activist in California, and he had frequently associated with Communist front groups and toured Communist countries. But I wanted confirmation, so I began checking into Hayden and Carters known movements to determine whether there was any convergence with the other details given in the KGB archives. A research assistant helped me dig up any pertinent information on Carters visits to California during the 1976 Presidential campaign.

We soon determined that on Sunday, August 22 and Monday, August 23, 1976, Carter met with Cranston and the campaign steering committee of the Democratic National Committee at the Pacifica Hotel, also known as the Radisson Los Angeles Airport Hotel of the Pacifica Host Hotels chain. In the process we discovered there was another individual present during Carters visit who seemed to fit the suspects profile better than Tom Hayden:

The Los Angeles Times gave a detailed summary of Carters visit and itinerary on August 23, 1976:

From the airport, Carter motored to the Pacifica Hotel, where he was greeted by Sens. Alan Cranston and John V. Tunney and Mayor Bradley at a reception held under the auspices of the Democratic National Committee. . .

Inside, Carter gave a brief speech. . .

After the reception at the hotel, the former Americana Hotel in Culver City, Carter, Carter drove to the home of Lew Wasserman, Music Corp. of America chairman. . .

Brown was among the guests at the Wasserman dinner. Others included Sens. Cranston and Tunney, Rep. James C. Corman of Van Nuys, labor lawyer Sidney Korshak, producer Norman Lear, Occidental Oil head Armand Hammer, David Begelman, president of Columbia Pictures, Barry Diller, chairman of the board of Paramount Pictures, and Robert Prescott, board chairman of Flying Tiger Airlines.

Political figures attending from out of state included Democratic National Chairman Robert S. Strauss and Rep. Andrew Young of Georgia.

After the Wasserman dinner, Carter went to the Beverly Wilshire, where he was the guest of honor at a reception given by actor Warren Beatty. . .

From Los Angeles, Carter flies today to San Francisco and then tonight to Seattle. . .

Carters Los Angeles schedule. . .allows for no direct contact by the Georgian with substantial segments of this areas electorate. . .

Instead, the Carter schedule calls for attending functions associated with a second meeting of the campaign steering committee of the Democratic National Committee at the Pacifica Hotel. The steering committee plans a number of meetings around the country.

In addition to speaking at Town Hall this noon, Carter plans to make an appearance this afternoon before the Watts Labor Community Action Council in the heart of the black community, and he will be interviewed for an hour at The Times.

His California itinerary will continue to be rather limited when he goes to San Francisco, where his only schedule event is a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at the Fairmont Hotel. . .5

Among the names mentioned in this Los Angeles Times article, several stand out for known Soviet intelligence associations, and one in particular emerges as a most likely suspect for the Carter campaigns KGB mole.

Armand Hammers work for Soviet intelligence is well known.6 However there is no indication in the Los Angeles Times article or other sources of Hammer going back to the Pacifica with Carter after the Wasserman dinner. Nor was Hammer especially close to the other individuals described as being within the KGB agents circle of contacts. While we did not rule Hammer out absolutely due to a lack of exhaustive information, he did not seem to be the best match for the suspect profile.

Andrew Young is known to have been under the influence of Communist Party operative Jack Hunter Pitts ODell.7 However researchers considering Young as a suspect have pointed out that in the same passage where Christopher Andrew discusses the Carter campaigns KGB mole, he mentions that the KGB met obstacles when attempting to recruit Young.8 This alone does not necessarily exclude Young from consideration, but when other details are considered, a better suspect emerges.

That individual is a known KGB asset mentioned in the Los Angeles Times article: California Senator John Tunney.

Fitting the Profile

Tunneys relationship with the KGB was first revealed in 1992 after Soviet archives came into Western possession, and has recently received renewed publicity from reviews of Paul Kengors 2006 book The Crusader9 The documents publicized in 1992 and 2006 focused on Tunneys mediation between Soviet officials and Ted Kennedy from 1978 to 1983. But Tunney also seems to be the best fit for the profile of the unnamed agent the KGB had placed in Jimmy Carters circles during the 1976 Presidential campaign.

Like the unnamed agent, Tunney had been in the Soviet Union. His business trips there after 1978 are easily documented from the public record. I found it more difficult to determine exactly when he first visited the USSR, but it was apparently before October 1974. At that time his soon-to-be-ex-wife Mieke wrote an article for Ladies Home Journal describing her relationship with Senator Edward Kennedys husband Joan, whom she had known since 1958 when their future husbands were attending law school together.10 Mieke mentioned days in Moscow with Joan during the past 16 years:

Both Joan and I take great pride in looking well. . .Our faces have a few more wrinkles despite the creams that we faithfully apply, but if one were to ask us to give back any of those 16 years, the stimulating yet hectic life, the action-packed days in Boston or Washington or Moscow, the answer would be never.11

When were Mieke Tunney and Joan Kennedy in Moscow between 1958 and 1974? In the wake of detente, a number of groups of Senators and Congressmen travelled to the Soviet Union between 1972 and 1974.12 Senator Kennedy made his first trip to the USSR from April 18 through 25, 1974, visiting Moscow before going on to sightseeing in Tbilisi and Leningrad. News coverage and Kennedy biographies mention that the Senator travelled with Joan and their children Kara and Ted, Jr. While in Moscow the Senator met briefly with what news accounts describe as American residents in Moscow. In Tbilisi Kennedy spoke at the Dartmouth Conference, an annual Soviet-American business conference, which was attended by other Americans including Chase Manhattan Bank president David Rockefeller and Senators Hugh Scott and William Roth. The Senator also met with the Soviet USA Institute, headed by Dartmouth Conference attendee Georgi Arbatov.13 I did not find any direct references to the Tunneys being present on these occasions. But I did find references to the Tunneys vacationing with the Kennedys several times during 1972-1974, when both Senators were having marital difficulties and Tunneys son Teddy was helping Ted Kennedy, Jr. work through chemotherapy for bone cancer.14 In July 1974, the Kennedy and Tunney families were reported vacationing together in Ireland.15 So it seems plausible that Mieke Tunneys reference to days in Moscow may be alluding to the Kennedys 1974 visit to Moscow. Hopefully further research will uncover additional information.

It proved easier to find confirmation that Tunney fit some of the other items in the unnamed agents profile remarkably well. His circle of contacts coincided significantly with those attributed to the agent: Governor Jerry Brown of California, Senator Alan Cranston, Senator Eugene McCarthy, Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator Abraham Ribicoff, Senator J. William Fulbright and Congressman John Conyers, Jr.

Tunneys political contacts stemmed partly from his close relationship with Senator Kennedy. Tunney had been Kennedys college roommate in law school and was an usher at Kennedys wedding to Joan. Joan Kennedy and Mieke Tunney became best friends over the course of the 1960s. Meanwhile their husbands travelled together and were frequently seen together in extramarital couplings with other women.16 In addition to such social contact, Kennedy and Tunney worked together politically. For instance, while Tunney was still a Congressman in 1966, he and Kennedy and their wives travelled to the Middle East on a fact-finding trip to develop an Arab-Israeli peace plan.17 Also in 1966, Joan Kennedy and her sister Candy travelled to California to stump for the re-election of Tunney and Governor Pat Brown.18 Tunney helped Jess Unruh organize Robert Kennedys Presidential campaign in California in 1968,19 and early that same year Tunney and Edward Kennedy both made fact-finding trips to Vietnam.20 After Tunney was elected Senator in 1970, he and Kennedy served on the Senate Judiciary Committee together.21 They joined forces against the Nixon administration and California Governor Ed Reinecke during the Watergate investigation.22 In late 1974 and early 1975 they joined Senators Alan Cranston and Dick Clark in leading a drive to sever US aid to anti-Communist forces in Angola.23

Tunneys close relationship with Kennedy placed him in Kennedys circle of contacts, intersecting with at least three of the other politicians from the unnamed KGB agents list of contacts: Senators Abraham Ribicoff and Jacob Javits and Congressman John Conyers, Jr.

Ribicoff, a friend of the Kennedy family since 1949, had been John Kennedys campaign adviser and first cabinet appointee.24 As a Senator he and his close colleague Jacob Javits had worked with Robert Kennedy on the Subcommittee on Executive Reorganization of the Senate Committee on Government Operations.25 Following Robert Kennedys assassination, Ribicoff had supported antiwar candidate George McGoverns Presidential aspirations in 1968 and 1972.26 Edward Kennedy joined him in supporting McGovern in the 1972 campaign, and both Kennedy and Ribicoff were considered as running mates for McGovern.27 At the time of Kennedys April 1974 trip to the USSR he was cosponsoring a major piece of legislation being promoted by Ribicoff in conjunction with Senator Javits and Senator Henry Jackson, the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.28 In support of this legislation and related legislation, Tunneys aide Mel Levine worked in coordination with Jacksons aide Richard Perle, Javits aide Albert Lakeland, and Ribicoffs aide Morris Amitay.29

John Conyers, Jr. served on the House Judiciary Committee while Tunney was on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Tunney and his committee listened to a statement Conyers gave opposing the Supreme Court nomination of Lewis Powell.30 Tunney also supported the efforts of Conyers and his Democratic colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee to impeach Richard Nixon, an effort in which Senator Kennedy played a large behind-the-scenes role.31

As a Democratic Senator from California, Tunney also worked closely with two of the unnamed KGB agents other contacts: Senator Cranston and Governor Brown. Cranston, who was Tunneys senior as California Senator, was quoted in a 1971 article describing the growth of his relationship with Tunney, and in 1974-1975 he supported Tunneys efforts to cut off US aid to Angola.32 At the 1976 Democratic National Convention, where Jerry Brown was one of Carters leading rivals, Tunney and Cranston attended a private unity meeting between Browns camp and the Carter camp.33 Carters California campaign was aided by Brown, Cranston, Tunney, and Democratic State Chairman Charles Manatt, who had guided Tunneys 1970 Senate campaign and later became Tunneys law partner when the former Senator joined the firm of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Tunney (now Manatt, Phelps & Phillips).34

In addition to being present during Carters Los Angeles visit on August 22, 1976, Tunney also had good opportunity for the later contact with Carter and his supporters attributed to the unnamed KGB agent: During the final stages of the campaign the agent had what the KGB claimed were 'direct and prolonged conversations' with Carter, Governor Brown and Senators Cranston, Kennedy, Ribicoff and Jacob Javits.

Carter visited California three times during the later stages of his campaign. Following his first debate with President Ford, he spent the weekend of September 24-26, 1976 in Southern California, making an appearance at the San Diego Zoo and at an Orange County barbecue and in the process appearing publicly with Governor Brown and Senators Cranston and Tunney.35 Carter was in San Francisco for his second debate with Ford from October 4 through October 7.36 Carter made a final campaign swing through California over the weekend of October 29 through November 1, during which he joined a San Francisco telecast featuring Tunney and other Democratic candidates on Halloween, spent that evening and the next morning in Sacramento at the El Mirador Hotel with Governor Brown, and attended a Los Angeles lunch rally with Brown, Tunney, and Cranston on November 1.37

Tunney could have spoken with his best friend Kennedy at any time during this period. Kennedy had especially close access to Carter when Carter stopped in Boston on September 31 and met with Kennedy and other Democratic state leaders.38 Carter was also present at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York on October 21 for the annual dinner of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation, which was attended by prominent members of both parties.39 I am still trying to determine whether Tunney had any documented contact with Ribicoff or Javits during the final stages of the Carter campaign.

Historical Implications

If Tunney was the unnamed KGB agent, what are the implications for history? If Tunney had already been recruited by the KGB before his 1976 Senate campaign, it could shed significant light on his activity during the Nixon-Ford administration. The precise date of the unnamed agents recruitment is unclear from Andrews summary, but his account makes it sound as if the agent had already been recruited during a visit to Russia sometime prior to the 1976 Presidential campaign. As mentioned above, Senator Kennedy had visited Russia in April 1974, and Mieke Tunney recorded reminiscences of days in Moscow with Joan Kennedy in an October 1974 article. During this period, as Kennedy sized up his odds in the next Presidential election and Tunney prepared to run for re-election to the Senate, both men were actively involved in promoting the Watergate prosecution.40 In late 1974, Tunney initiated the Congressional antiwar blocs effort to cut off US aid to Angola. Soviet archives record the KGBs enthusiastic reviews of New York Times coverage of Congress attack on President Fords Angola policy.41

While Tunneys relationship to the KGB before the 1976 election remains only a hypothesis supported by circumstantial evidence, there is more direct evidence available after the 1976 election, when Tunney joined the law firm of his friend Charles Manatt, who would serve as the Democratic National Committee Chairman from 1981 to 1985. Soviet archives indicate that another firm Tunney was linked to, Agritech, had a relationship to a French-American company called Finatech, which was run by David Karra KGB agent associated with Armand Hammerand served as an intermediary between the KGB and Ted Kennedy between 1978 and 1980. KBG reports also mention Tunney carrying messages between Kennedy and Moscow in 1983. As summarized by Herbert Romerstein:

One of the documents, a KGB report to bosses in the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee, revealed that "In 1978, American Sen. Edward Kennedy requested the assistance of the KGB to establish a relationship" between the Soviet apparatus and a firm owned by former Sen. John Tunney (D.-Calif.). KGB recommended that they be permitted to do this because Tunney's firm was already connected with a KGB agent in France named David Karr. This document was found by the knowledgeable Russian journalist Yevgenia Albats and published in Moscow's Izvestia in June 1992.

Another KGB report to their bosses revealed that on March 5, 1980, John Tunney met with the KGB in Moscow on behalf of Sen. Kennedy. Tunney expressed Kennedy's opinion that "nonsense about 'the Soviet military threat' and Soviet ambitions for military expansion in the Persian Gulf. . .was being fueled by [President Jimmy] Carter, [National Security Advisor Zbigniew] Brzezinski, the Pentagon and the military industrial complex.". . .

In May 1983, the KGB again reported to their bosses on a discussion in Moscow with former Sen. John Tunney. Kennedy had instructed Tunney, according to the KGB, to carry a message to Yuri Andropov, the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, expressing Kennedy's concern about the anti-Soviet activities of President Ronald Reagan. The KGB reported "in Kennedy's opinion the opposition to Reagan remains weak. Speeches of the President's opponents are not well-coordinated and not effective enough, and Reagan has the chance to use successful counterpropaganda." Kennedy offered to "undertake some additional steps to counter the militaristic, policy of Reagan and his campaign of psychological pressure on the American population." Kennedy asked for a meeting with Andropov for the purpose of "arming himself with the Soviet leader's explanations of arms control policy so he can use them later for more convincing speeches in the U.S." He also offered to help get Soviet views on the major U.S. networks and suggested inviting "Elton Rule, ABC chairman of the board, or observers Walter Cronkite or Barbara Walters to Moscow."

Tunney also told the KGB that Kennedy was planning to run for President in the 1988 elections. "At that time, he will be 56 years old, and personal problems that have weakened his position will have been resolved [Kennedy quietly settled a divorce suit and soon plans to remarry]." Of course the Russians understood his problem with Chappaquiddick. While Kennedy did not intend to run in 1984, he did not exclude the possibility that the Democratic Party would draft him because "not a single one of the current Democratic hopefuls has a real chance of beating Reagan."

This document was first discovered in the Soviet archives by London Times reporter Tim Sebastian and a report on it was published in that newspaper in February 1992.42

So from 1978 to 1983, there is direct evidence from Soviet archives that Tunney was acting as a middleman between Senator Kennedy and the Soviet Union. Circumstantial evidence indicates that Tunney may have begun playing this role as early as 1974-1976.

Tunneys role as courier to the Soviets was not limited to delivering messages from Kennedy. A review of Paul Kengors Crusader adds:

At one point after President Reagan left office, Tunney acknowledged that he had played the role of intermediary, not only for Kennedy but for other U.S. senators, Kengor said. Moreover, Tunney told the London Times that he had made 15 separate trips to Moscow.

"There's a lot more to be found here," Kengor told Cybercast News Service. "This was a shocking revelation."43

There is indeed a lot more to be foundor from the perspective of some, perhaps, a lot more to be covered up.

Notes

1Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB, New York: Basic Books, 1999, 290-291, 627n84, citing "[Mitrokhin archives] vol. 6, app. 1, part 4; t-3,76.

21Committee on the Judiciary, http://a255.g.akamaitech.net/7/255/2422/06sep20050947/www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/senate/judiciary/sh92-69-267/members.pdf , Committee on the Judiciary, http://a255.g.akamaitech.net/7/255/2422/26sep20051515/www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/senate/judiciary/sh94-63774/members.pdf ; U.S. National Archives and Records Administration: Legislative Branch: The Center for Legislative Archives, Guide to the Records of the U.S. Senate at the National Archives (Record Group 46): Chapter 13. Records of the Committee on the Judiciary and Related Committees, 1816-1968: Records of Subcommittees: Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, online at http://www.archives.gov/legislative/guide/senate/chapter-13-judiciary-1947-1968.html

22Abuse of Governmental Power Segments, Nixon White House Tapes, Conversation Numbers 22-84, 22-93, 23-8, 711-14, 712-6, 23-30, and 331-16, April 5-18, 1972, online at http://nixon.archives.gov/find/tapes/watergate/aogp/april_1972.pdf ; Gray Nom., ABC Evening News, March 1, 1973; Gray/Watergate Case, CBS Evening News, March 9, 1973; The Fight Over the Future of the FBI, TIME, March 26, 1973; Watergate Case, ABC Evening News, May 15, 1973; Watergate/Elliott Richardson, ABC Evening News, May 22, 1973; Senate Probe/Cox Removal/Nixon Impeachment, CBS Evening News, October 22, 1973;Reinecke Arraigned, ABC Evening News, April 10, 1974; Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-Third Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to H. Res. 803, A Resolution Authorizing and Directing the Committee on the Judiciary to Investigate Whether Sufficient Grounds Exist for the House of Representatives to Exercise Its Constitutional Power to Impeach Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States of America, Presidential Statements on the Watergate Break-In and Its Investigation, May-June 1974Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1974, Appendix I, online at http://watergate.info/judiciary/APPI.PDF

23Joshua Murvachik, Kennedys Foreign Policy: What the Record Shows, Commentary, Volume 68, Number 6, December 1979.

30John Conyers to United States Senate, November 9, 1971, from United States Senate, Nominations of William H. Rehnquist and Lewis F. Powell, Jr.: Hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary. United States Senate. November 3, 4, 8, 9 and 10, 1971., online at http://www.20thcenturyrolemodels.org/powell/LP%20Judging%20History.pdf

31Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-Third Congress, Second Session, Pursuant to H. Res. 803, A Resolution Authorizing and Directing the Committee on the Judiciary to Investigate Whether Sufficient Grounds Exist for the House of Representatives to Exercise Its Constitutional Power to Impeach Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States of America, Presidential Statements on the Watergate Break-In and Its Investigation, May-June 1974Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1974, Appendix I, online at http://watergate.info/judiciary/APPI.PDF

32Charles Powers, Warming Up for the Big Time: Can John Tunney Make It As a Heavyweight?, West, December 12, 1971; Carl Gershman and Bayard Rustin, Africa, Soviet Imperialism & The Retreat of American Power, Commentary, Volume 64, Number 4, October 1977; Murvachik; K.C. Johnson, Clark Amendment, http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/history/johnson/clark.htm

33Carter Goes to See Brown--Asks His Help in Fall: Californians Join Candidate in Unity Session, Los Angeles Times, July 15, 1976, 2.

Rush mentioned Kennedy's attempts to use his influence in negotiations between the US and Andropov today. It looks like the veil might be lifted on some of the old fellow travelers and cast a light on their current political leanings.

10
posted on 10/23/2006 2:27:33 PM PDT
by saganite
(Billions and billions and billions-------and that's just the NASA budget!)

I was an undergraduate during the Army McCarthy hearings, and I naively subscribed to the view that McCarthy was a witch hunter. At the same time, it was clear to me back then, and I think always, that the Soviet Union was our enemy and that Communism was as bad as Nazism, if not worse.

It's been fascinating to learn just how many of our politicians and their aides were, in fact, actual Communists.

I don't really understand what would have led Teddy Kennedy to become a Communist patsy, other than the fact that he seems to be both evil and stupid. Unlike many of those other people, the Kennedy family does not seem to have had a Communist background. Mobsters, yes, but not Communists that I have heard of. I would have suspected Jimmy Carter before Teddy Kennedy.

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